- Arsenal had to buy away socks from Chelsea for Friday’s match
- Chelsea went on to record a dominant 3-1 victory over the Gunners in the WSL
- I’m looking forward to Man United on Sunday… something has to happen for Jurgen’s juggernaut – It’s all a kick-off podcast
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes has insisted she will not throw Arsenal’s kitman ‘under the bus’ and insists he will already be feeling ‘c**p’ after the Gunners’ banned socks left the WSL Friday’s clash was postponed by 30 minutes.
Arsenal arrived at their arch-rivals’ home wearing the white and red socks from their home strip, but were told just before the scheduled 7pm kick-off that they were not allowed to wear them.
In addition to teams not being allowed to wear the same color shirts, shorts and socks must also be different, and so the search for new ankle wear was on.
The problem was solved by the Gunners buying a pair of blue and black away socks from Chelsea, but they had to mask off the Nike logo because Arsenal were sponsored by Adidas.
Arsenal women’s manager Jonas Eidevall refused to use the pre-match chaos as an ‘excuse’ for Friday’s WSL defeat at Stamford Bridge. The Gunners were well beaten in a 3-1 attack by Hayes’ side.
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes insisted she won’t throw Arsenal’s kitman ‘under the bus’ and insisted he will already be feeling ‘c**p’ after a sock problem led to the WSL match being postponed
Arsenal’s players had to change socks at the last minute as the match was postponed by 30 minutes
The Gunners ended up playing in Chelsea away socks with tape wrapped around the Nike logo
Your browser does not support iframes.
Blues boss Hayes joked she was ‘delighted’ to see Arsenal players had to wear Chelsea kit, but refused to offer any further criticism of the visiting kit staff who made the mistake.
The outgoing manager, who will take over the USWNT this summer, said: “I was delighted. Because of who I am, I’m not going to throw the kit man under the bus. He’s going to feel terrible tonight.
‘It’s a mistake. Either way it’s a mistake, he’s new to this position. It happened. If we had had blue socks and if this had been an away game we would have had white and blue, but because it was a home game we knew three weeks in advance that we would wear white socks, we are the home team.
‘But because we didn’t have blue, I couldn’t just say don’t worry, we’ll put on the blue socks, because we didn’t have them. We are also in an era, God knows why, they have cut everything out, holes, there is a whole process in it.
‘I was very happy when I saw the lions’ weapons on Arsenal’s legs in the first half. Maybe that gave my players motivation, I don’t know.
“Listen, it’s a serious mistake and something that poor guy is going home tonight feeling pretty bad about. I say this considering my day, I’m definitely not going to bother him,” she added.
Jonas Eidevall refused to use pre-match issues as an excuse for Arsenal’s defeat to Chelsea
Chelsea achieved an impressive 3-1 victory over their city rivals on Friday evening
Meanwhile, a disappointed Eidevall admitted after the match that preparations had not been ideal, but insisted it was ‘ridiculous’ to suggest the delay would give Chelsea any advantage.
‘It was a clash of colors with kits, which obviously came to the attention of me, the players and the other team very, very late.
‘We were on our way out and we were told that we couldn’t go and play with the kit we have and that we had to adapt. That was definitely a first and we had to do the best we could in the given situation.
‘But I’ll be very clear: it was exactly the same for the other team. I will not be tempted to make excuses. It’s ridiculous to try that. It’s the same for both teams,” he said.
